The trick is to smoke the meat and not make the meat smoke

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FAVORITE FOODS - Pork

  Date: October 2, 2014
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  BEST PORK CHOPS 1:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  PORK T-BONE STEAKS
  SOURCE:  Weber's Charcoal Grilling
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  September 13, 2012
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This meal marked my first attempt at direct/indirect grilling on my then new Egg. The chops were cooked at a high heat of 550° (290 C) on the open grate and then were moved to the BGE Half Moon Raised Grid for finishing indirect. Despite the high temperature used for cooking, these chops were the moistest pork chops I've ever had. No doubt this was caused by the tight seal of the BGE. The recipe had a companion barbecue sauce that went perfectly with the chops.

  BEST PORK CHOPS 2:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  SMOKED PORK CHOPS
  SOURCE:  America;s Test Kitchens Summer Grilling Guide 2010
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  December 10, 2010
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I adapted this recipe for smoked pork chops to add a reverse sear on the gas grill at the end. The chops were actually smoked standing in a vertical position at 275 degrees (135 C). I was monitoring the temperatures with my remote read thermometer from the Kitchen and pulled the chops early to give them a quick direct sear on the gas grill. The chops turned out great and the accompanying recipe for Apple Chutney, which is listed in FAVORITE SIDES was a great side dish for this meal.

  BEST PORK - HAM 1:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  GLAZED HAM STEAKS
  SOURCE:  Serious Barbecue
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  May 29, 2011
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Ham steaks are my favorite meat and this recipe turned out my favorite ham steak of all-time. Although it is from Serious Barbecue, which typically means a seriously complex cook, this is one of the simplest recipes in there. The steaks are marinated before grilling. Some of the marinade is reserved and boiled so it can be re-used as a glaze while grilling the ham. When the ham steak is done grilling, it is seasoned with some black pepper and parsley. I never knew ham steak could be this good.

  BEST PORK - HAM 2:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  SMOKED "BAKED" HAM
  SOURCE:  Serious Barbecue
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  December 25, 2011
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After 20 years of making either turkey or prime rib at Christmastime, I wanted to try something different. This recipe took a cooked ham and coated it with a sauce, called a "Wrapping Sauce", and applied to the ham before the ham was wrapped with foil. The ham was cooked at 275 degrees (135 C) for nearly 4 hours. After a 30 minute rest, for foil was removed and some reserved Wrapping Sauce was brushed on to be used as a glaze. The ham was then returned to the grill to cook uncovered for an additional 20 minutes until the glaze firmed up. I took advantage of this time to add some hickory smoke. This was an excellent ham worthy of Christmas dinner. It was very moist, no doubt from its time in the foil, and flavorful due to cooking with the Wrapping Sauce

  BEST PORK LOINS 1:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  CROWN ROAST OF PORK
  SOURCE:  Cook's Illustrated Holiday Grilling Guide 2013
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  December 25, 2013
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This was a case of kismet. I wanted to make something different for my Christmas dinner 2014. The magazine with this recipe and a picture of the roast on the cover was at the checkout stand of my supermarket in late November. I took this as a sign this was what I was meant to make. The folks at America's Test Kitchens made some tweaks to the recipe to correct some of the difficulties inherent with cooking this roast. I couldn't have been happier with how it turned out. The tweaks that the ATK folks made to the recipe corrected all of the problems they described. Plus if you let your Butcher make up the roast for you, the cook itself is pretty easy to do. This is a roast that tastes as good as it looks.

  BEST PORK LOINS 2:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  GLAZED PORK LOIN
  SOURCE:  Serious Barbecue
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  May 7, 2011
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Adam Perry Lang likes to apply layers of flavors to his recipes. For this pork loin, the meat is marinated for twelve hours in a citrus-based marinade. The meat is rubbed just before going on the smoker and there is a finishing sauce used after the meat has been sliced. This roast had an amazing combination of flavors. You could even taste some lingering citrus flavor from the original marinade. If you want a pork loin roast for a special occasion, you couldn't do better than this.

  BEST PORK RIBS 1 - Smoked:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  S.C. MUSTARD RIBS
  SOURCE:  America's Best Ribs
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  May 19, 2012
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I will admit to a bias: I am a mustard-based life form. I love mustard in any form I can get it. South Carolina and northern Georgia feature BBQ based on mustard-based sauces. A BBQ Buddy of mine sent me a bottle of some of the best South Carolina mustard sauce out there. I used this mustard sauce to make these ribs, and for me these were the best ribs I've ever had. My guests that day agreed. But I will add that there have been other times I have made mustard-based ribs or pulled pork and some people are a bit put off by these nontraditional BBQ sauces. If you are a more traditional ribs person, check out the 3rd place Princess Ribs below this entry. If you love mustard, wait till you taste it on ribs!!

  BEST PORK RIBS 2 - Smoked:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  MEMPHIS DRY RUB RIBS
  SOURCE:  More BBQ and Grilling on the Big Green Egg and Other Kamado-Style Cookers
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  April 24, 2016
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This recipe for smoked dry rub ribs replaces the former recipe Rendezvous Ribs v2 for grilled dry rub ribs on the Favorites list, These are a unique variety of rib that are not sauced and receive a spicy dry rub seasoning. They are a close second to the S.C. Mustard Ribs listed in 1st place above this entry. These ribs get an application of the spice rub at several times throughout the cook and the finished ribs have a crispy very tasty bark. I have been to several local BBQ competitions where Dry Rub Ribs have receive the People’s Choice Award. They bested more traditional sauced ribs which are what is common around here. If you are looking for something out of the ordinary, these definitely fit the bill.

  BEST PORK RIBS 3 - Smoked:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  PRINCESS RIBS
  SOURCE:  Ribs, Ribs, Ribs
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  October 18, 2008
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These were my favorite ribs up until I made the mustard-based ribs listed above. This is my "go to" rib recipe for when I am asked to make ribs for some special event. These are considered a Kansas City style rib, but the spicy rub and the tangy and spicy hot sauce put them in a level by themselves. These ribs have taken first place in important BBQ competitions and I can see why. They grab your attention with the first bite and are an amazing experience.

  BEST PORK SHOULDER 1 - Pulled:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  S.C. PULLED PORK
  SOURCE:  Cooks Country TV show
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  March 19, 2011
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As I mentioned under the entry S.C. Mustard ribs above, mustard-based barbecue sauce is popular in northern Georgia and South Carolina. Their pulled pork uses a mustard-based barbecue sauce and this is the best recipe I've tried so far. Even the companion coleslaw recipe uses mustard in place of much of the vinegar normally used. If your mustard lover like I do definitely try out some recipes for a South Carolina style pulled pork.

  BEST PORK SHOULDER 2 - Pulled:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  FIREFLY'S PULLED PORK
  SOURCE:  From a BBQ Cooking Class
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  January 26, 2006
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This was the the first pulled pork recipe I ever made. It was from a barbecue class I took that got me to buy a smoker and get into smoking and serious way. It uses a Memphis style tomato-based barbecue sauce that has some unusual special ingredients like chocolate chips and Coca-Cola. When I am asked to bring pulled pork to parties or special occasions, this is my go to recipe. I do like mustard-based pulled pork better, but this is the more traditional pulled pork that people are used to. You do have to plan ahead for this recipe where the meat is rubbed and refrigerated for 24 to 48 hours. But once you start cooking it is a simple clock. In fact I make it a lot in the winter because there is no mopping involved. You get to keep the lid down on your smoker for most of the cook. Everyone who has tried this has told me it's one of the best pulled pork meals they have had.

  BEST PORK SHOULDER - Roast:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  OLD FASHIONED PORK ROAST
  SOURCE:  Cook's Country TV show
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  July 14, 2009
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This recipe intrigued me when I saw it being made on TV. They were using a fatty pork shoulder cut for a pork roast they were going to end up slicing up. They cooked it at a very low temperature in the oven which made it very much like cooking it low and slow on a smoker. About halfway through the nearly 8 hour cook, sliced onions were added into the roast pan. The drippings and onions would later be used as a starter for gravy. After cooking low and slow for nearly 8 hours, if you tried to cut the roast it would pull or shred as opposed to slice. So the roast was refrigerated overnight. The next day the roast was sliced and the slices were fanned out in a casserole pan topped with the onions. The roast was heated in the oven for a half hour to warm it up. This is far and away the best pork roast I've ever had and I was totally surprised where it came from the pork shoulder.

  BEST PORK SHOULDER - Steak:

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  PHOTO ENTRY NAME:  ST. LOUIS PORK STEAKS v1
  SOURCE:  BBQ USA
  DATE FIRST COOKED:  April 29, 2006
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Pork steaks which are very popular in the St. Louis area are virtually unheard of around here. I saw this recipe for grilled pork steaks on Steven Raichlen's BBQ University TV show and I knew I had to make them. The recipe featured a rather complex sauce, half of which was used for brushing the steaks and the rest was served with the steaks. The sauce was a complex blend of flavors that went perfectly with the pork. Since this time I have found out that pork steaks are cut from the Boston butt (pork shoulder). So now instead of asking for a pork steak, I ask the butcher to take a Boston butt and slice into four steaks for me.

  Motivation:

People are always asking me what my favorite recipes are. This section had it's origins in a seven part BLOG entry I wrote in 2011 called A Few of My Favorite Things. I have made many great dishes since then and also started making other types of foods such as Stir Fries. This section needed to be updated and expanded to stay current or be dropped. I chose the later and you have the results of my reworking the section in the Fall of 2014
  Pork Info:
The PORK section of the site has the second highest number of entries. Here I am presenting one or more best items for the various cuts of pork I have grilled or smoked..

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